Perfect Note
by FaithDaria
Summary: Rachel made her peace with being a mutant a long time ago, even if the attitude in Lima, Ohio made it necessary to stay in the mutant closet for the time being. It gets a little lonely, though, and she can't help but wish that there was someone else with a similar problem.


Title: Perfect Note

The auditorium was empty, which was pretty much perfect for her needs. There was very little glass in this room and nothing that would readily absorb her voice as she sang. Despite what her father had said this morning about maybe taking a step back from singing while she was in school, there couldn't be a more perfect place to practice. The acoustics were quite good for a school auditorium and her voice carried through the room quite well when she sang, even when she kept it soft.

Her parents were against her joining glee club back when Mr. Ryerson was the teacher in charge of it, and the attitude didn't change when Mr. Schuester started it back up. She couldn't fault the logic of it all, of course. It was one thing for her to record videos in her room and post them on the internet; she could practice over and over until everything was perfect before she put one up and they could review it to make sure that nothing happened during the recording. The comments weren't uniformly nasty there, and the ones that were had a decidedly personal twist on them that she could actually ignore much more easily than if they had been anonymous.

Performing in real life was trickier. Rachel had been working for years on her vocal control, but there was a reason that all of the windows in her house had much thicker glass than was normal. That was part of the reason she wanted to join glee club in the first place, actually. Performing in a group might make it easier to slide past any possible slip-ups without revealing the actual culprit. It would be a good testing ground, a way to become used to the trials of singing in public with the buffer and added protection of her teammates. Granted, sometimes she got the feeling that Kurt would shove her down the stairs for a solo and Mercedes had a habit of spouting anti-mutant rants when the topic came up at all, but perhaps they wouldn't realize what had happened.

She was already warmed up from Glee rehearsal, so she closed her eyes and launched into 'Spoonful of Sugar' from Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews had an amazing range and the songs from that musical soared. It didn't hurt that Mary Poppins was her favorite musical as a child, before her parents introduced her to Barbra Streisand when she was nine. Rachel let loose once she got to the final chorus, enjoying the opportunity to relinquish the tight control she'd been keeping everywhere else. The hum at the base of her throat and in her chest felt good, especially when she knew she wouldn't be hurting anything in here. Back at Xavier's there'd been a room down in the basement that was perfect for such a thing, and the grounds surrounding the school were large enough that she could just let loose. That freedom was sorely missing from Lima. Even when she was at home she still had to be careful.

She finished the song with a flourish, letting her voice carry to the far reaches of the auditorium. There was a slight buzz against the exposed skin of her arms, but it faded away quickly and there didn't seem to be any ill effects out in the auditorium. Rachel smiled. She could handle this, she knew she could. Rachel Berry was going to be a star.

xxx

It was hard sometimes, not having any mutant friends after being surrounded by them for close to three years of her life. She was always on the lookout for someone that could relate with being different and it was hard not to wish that the other members of the glee club would be a little more mutant-friendly. They all flew to Kurt's side at the first hint of homophobia, but the way she'd heard them gossip made it obvious she could never come out of the mutant closet here and be accepted. In the meantime, she was going to watch.

She figured it out almost by accident. Rachel had known Noah Puckerman since she was practically in diapers despite the fact that they hadn't publicly acknowledged each other between the ages of ten and sixteen, unless you included slushie facials. The Jewish community of Lima, Ohio was not particularly large, after all, and neither was the school. She'd never really made it any sort of priority to look for him, though. Attention paid to Noah Puckerman was attention taken away from her classes and lessons and the hard work it took to be a star. Then she'd been away for most of middle school, only back for summer break, and didn't return to the school district until it was time to start high school. By the end of the first grading period of freshman year, the only reason she'd spent time watching Noah Puckerman was because she was trying to avoid a slushie attack.

It wasn't until he joined Glee Club, along with several other football players, that he became anything other than an obstacle to her inevitable fame on Broadway. Being in Glee Club meant that he was one of them and Rachel always tried to keep an eye on her fellow Glee Club members. That meant that one morning she saw him stop on his way down the hall, blink, and take two steps back and one step over, just in time to avoid any splatter from a slushie thrown at Jacob ben Israel.

It happened again the next afternoon, when he stepped out of the way of Finn's flailing limbs during an improperly executed piece of choreography. Once could have been a fluke, simply the football player paying attention to the rhythm of the school and the odds that Jacob had a frozen beverage thrown at him easily once a day. The second time seemed a little too coincidental, but given Finn's approach to dancing it was definitely within the realm of possibility. It took seeing him stomp on the brakes of his truck when a chain of events led to Artie and his wheelchair rolling into the oncoming traffic for Rachel to successfully note the pattern and keep an eye out for similar incidents.

She filed all of her observations and mental notes in a small, tidy corner of her mind, along with the conclusions that she drew from them, and didn't do anything further with the information. It wasn't her job to drag Noah screaming and kicking out of the mutant closet, especially considering her own position behind the shoe rack. As far as she knew, they were the only two at the school and being in that kind of minority wasn't anything she was planning on disclosing. Getting a slushie facial because she was annoying someone and was in glee club was one thing. There was a very real possibility of violence if word got out about her genetics.

Knowing that there was someone else at McKinley with a similar problem was comforting, even if Noah didn't realize that they had anything in common beyond being Jewish. In some ways she missed being at Xavier's. It was just so easy to fit in there because everyone was so different. The fact that she had an amazing singing voice that could also shatter glass and crack concrete walls was absorbed into the general knowledge that her roommate could snap her fingers and make literal fireworks appear and that her roommate's best friend could walk through walls, and more than one of her fellow students had teased her about making it big and becoming the first mutant icon. Her inevitable fame was why she left, actually. Someday, when she was a famous singer and actress, a member of the press was going to do background on her past. The school worked best when its purpose remained a secret, so it was much, much better if she attended a normal American high school. Rachel reminded herself about that particular decision every time she had to rinse food dye and corn syrup from her hair.

xxx

Puck was only vaguely aware of why he'd started with slushies back in ninth grade but he knew exactly why he'd continued the practice for over a year (it was one of the easiest ways to keep the losers in their place, for one, and it made everybody in the hallway look when one was delivered). He'd slowed down with the practice, if only because it got kind of expensive and because most of his former objects of torment were now his teammates and that shit wasn't kosher, but sometimes he still wanted to hit Rachel Berry with one despite it all. She always talked all the time about crap that didn't matter, for one thing, and it was annoying how she was practically skywriting 'Do me now' to Hudson.

He'd been a little worried for a week or so that she was transferring her crazy attentions to him because it seemed like she was always staring at him and he was starting to wonder if he would need to do something about it (sex with the girl in question, for example, so she could stop wondering about the mysteries of Puck and actually experience them). Then she stopped, just as suddenly as she'd started. She went back to staring longingly at Finn and Puck could finally relax.

Glancing ahead didn't do anything to explain what the hell she was doing. If Berry was planning something, it was so long term that he'd have to wait and figure it out later. Right now, though, she'd stopped staring. She even smiled at him sometimes, which was beyond weird. He didn't have time for anything more than the baby drama around Quinn. Berry could wait.

xxx

When the notice about auditions for the play went up, she couldn't help but sign up and give it her all. It was the perfect opportunity to see how her talents could handle a solo performance. Rachel knew that 'Cabaret' wasn't going to be something that sold out a packed auditorium in this part of Ohio, but the chance to sing the lead in an environment that was just about completely safe wasn't something that Rachel could pass up.

She had fully intended on staying in glee club until Mr. Schuester started giving away her solos out of some sort of spite. If it had been any other song Rachel would have let it slide, but 'West Side Story' was a deal-breaker. Tina was a very accomplished alto, but she didn't have the vocal range to pull it off or the confidence to sing it out the way it deserved.

Her control didn't waver either time she delivered the news, which pleased her. She had been angry both times and in the past that probably would have resulted in broken glass and tears. All right, there were a few tears this time around, but nothing was broken other than her heart. Finn had strung her along in a way that was totally reprehensible. He'd made a fool out of her, and no one made a fool out of Rachel Berry. There was no way she'd come back to glee club after what he'd done.

That resolution held until Invitationals, when Coach Sylvester gave her everything she thought she wanted and Rachel realized that none of it was really what she needed. That horrible April woman bailed on New Directions halfway through the performance and Rachel stepped in as the understudy. It should have felt demeaning, that she wasn't the expected star and that she wasn't the one everyone was waiting to see, but somehow none of it mattered. Being part of the group made her feel special.

The other members didn't really welcome her back with open arms, but it was clear that they needed her just as much as she needed them. She could make this work. She had to make this work. Nothing was going to stop her from enjoying this opportunity, not even Quinn Fabray.

The revelation of Quinn's pregnancy did manage to make one thing clear to her. She wasn't about to get in the middle of that relationship. From now on, she would only be engaging with Finn when it came to professional matters. It just wasn't worth it right now.

xxx

Will was never quite sure what to do with Rachel Berry. It was obvious that she had talent. All anyone needed to do was listen to her sing to know that. Sometimes he could swear that her voice gave him goosebumps and made the room vibrate. Her personality was so forward and abrasive, though, that it was hard to swallow that down even with the voice to ease the way. Most of the other students in the club seemed to dislike her and admire her talent in equal measures, and he had a hard time faulting them for it. For all of that, though, he knew that Rachel's drive was probably going to get them to Regionals and possibly further. A club like this needed someone behind it to push and he couldn't always be the main impetus.

He knew the statistics of a school like this; most of his students wouldn't make it out of the state for college. Some of the ones who did would end up coming back after graduation and making a life here in Lima. After all, that's exactly what he did. Rachel was one of the ones who stood a chance at getting out of here for good, and she might just drag some of the others with her. He wasn't going to cater to her, but he would be paying attention to what she had to say. If he could just get her to be part of the team rather than a star on her own, Rachel would lead them all out of here. Maybe she could even pull him out of Lima's black hole.

xxx

Rachel wasn't quite sure how she ended up making out with Noah Puckerman. It hadn't been something she'd planned, exactly, but it wasn't entirely unwelcome. Her experiences with kissing were pretty much limited to Finn Hudson and a boy named Sam from Xavier's and both of those occasions were far overshadowed by Noah's skill. She had a feeling that Noah had far more practice at this than either one of her previous encounters.

She hadn't been able to figure out his exact ability yet. It was obviously something that was incredibly internalized, probably something that allowed him glimpses of the future, but Rachel didn't know if it was under his control or something that simply happened to him. Right now, all she cared about was that she was in her room, on her bed, being kissed by a handsome boy. If only she could forget that the handsome boy in question was not Finn Hudson, she would be golden.

Noah wasn't the kind of boy who really allowed that kind of thinking, his skill making it evident she was making out with someone who was practically a professional. She hummed in the back of her throat as his hands drifted to new places before she pulled back, a little horrified. That hum had nearly been her using her power, and in a setting like that it could be disastrous. She could have just killed him, caused the bones closest to his mouth to shatter in place. He asked what was wrong and she panicked, grabbing on to the first excuse that came to mind. It was a valid problem that she'd been considering over the past day or so, when none of the boys had volunteered for the song and Mr. Schuester had needed to sing it himself. She was still the ingénue looking for a worthy leading man, after all, and Noah had yet to sing a solo.

He looked a little put out at that demand, which paradoxically made her feel better. No boy had ever done anything for her that would even vaguely inconvenience him before, and Noah had a stubborn expression on his face that was a little exciting. There was nothing vague or uncertain about Noah. That kind of single-mindedness matched something Rachel had always felt. For all that he didn't act like a man with any sort of purpose she'd never known Noah Puckerman to back down from a challenge.

Her dad came home before anything further could happen and Noah left, scowling, with his guitar case in hand. Rachel disappeared back into her room before anyone could ask any questions. She wanted to think about this for a while, savor the experience of being desired. It was nice to receive that kind of straightforward, blunt admiration for a change. Too bad she never had that from Finn.

The next day went by in something of a blur. She wore a raincoat all day to protect her outfit from slushies despite how uncomfortably warm it was and how it completely hid her clothing. The other glee club members were doing something similar, even Kurt despite how hard it was to look fashionable with a raincoat covering his wardrobe.

She spent the time she wasn't worrying about slushies rehashing her time with Noah Puckerman the night before. The way high school seemed to be going, it wasn't hard for Rachel to worry that she'd just blown her best chance at a cute boyfriend until she graduated and moved on to New York City. The boys at this school weren't really interested in intelligent, ambitious, talented girls like her. That was fine, she could handle that. Rachel knew she was bigger than this place. It was still a little lonely over here, though, and now that she'd made out with him it wasn't hard to imagine that Noah might be able to help with that.

As far as she could tell, everyone but Finn and Quinn made it through the day intact without being hit by a slushie. It was a nice relief, being able to take the raincoat off while they were in here at least. It was hard not to feel safe here in the choir room.

With everything that was going on, Rachel hadn't really given any thought to Mr. Schue's assignment, so it was a surprise when Noah volunteered, acoustic guitar in hand. He never volunteered for anything in glee club. As a matter of fact, Rachel didn't think he'd ever volunteered for anything anywhere in any school program since they started kindergarten.

There was an opening instrumental, which Rachel found frustratingly familiar, and then Noah began to sing Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline.' She hadn't heard him sing a solo since the fifth grade patriotic assembly, at which point he'd purposefully butchered the words of 'My Country 'tis of Thee' into something profane and teachers had never again made him perform. His voice had changed a little since then and Rachel listened with increasing joy as his slightly rough baritone sang the song straight to her.

That pretty much sealed the deal, as far as Rachel was concerned. He didn't quite have the range that she'd drilled into Finn, but that would come with practice, and unlike Finn he was willing to accept a little humiliation when it came his way. He was even willing to give up football.

It should have been perfect, but Rachel watched his eyes drift over to Quinn where the blond cheerleader was sitting with Santana and Brittany, Finn conspicuously absent, and she knew she couldn't do that again. It was bad enough that she'd probably never get Finn away from Quinn now that she was pregnant. There was no way she was going to get involved with someone else who was in love with the other girl.

xxx

"I hope you didn't quit football for me," Rachel said quietly. He couldn't help but look over at her, since the idea of Rachel and quiet went together about as well as Schue's rapping and everything else. "I don't think we're going to work out."

That came as a surprise to him, since he thought they'd actually been doing pretty well. He feigned disinterest, though. "Yeah? Why's that?"

"I think I still have feelings for Finn despite my best efforts, and I know you're interested in Quinn. I've seen the way you look at her, Noah. It just isn't fair to either one of us if we're not both completely invested in a relationship."

He couldn't think of a way to deny it, because he was still kind of hung up on Quinn and there was the added complication of the baby in her belly, the one that was half him and that Finn thought was his. He didn't know how any of that was going to work out but he wanted it, more than he'd ever wanted anything.

Rachel took his silence for agreement and plowed ahead. "I was hoping that we could still be friends. It was nice, knowing someone had my back if something happened. I thought I would offer the same to you."

Puck didn't do friends who are girls. He did bros he could hang with, and fuck buddies. Nothing in between, because that was just way too complicated. Instead of telling Rachel that, however, he nodded. "That sounds fair. Just so you know, I was going to break up with you anyway."

She threw him a look. "No, you weren't. You're still hoping you'll get a chance to put your hands up my skirt."

"The two aren't mutually exclusive," he said, leering at the jean skirt she was wearing. Not as short as the black one she wore the other day, but definitely something worth watching.

Rachel rolled her eyes and stood up. "In the spirit of friendship, then, I have something I need to tell you," she said, and Puck watched as she pulled her sweater a little tighter around her body. "Can you come over?"

"You can't tell me right here?" he asked, because if she wasn't contributing make-out time to this little relationship he wasn't entirely sure if he was interested and it sounded like that was canceled for the time being. Puck had never gotten the opportunity to make a play for her boobs, although she hadn't really objected to a little ass grabbing and had even reciprocated a little.

"It's not something I can say in public." She stood up, dark hair spilling over her shoulders, and he followed her from the bleachers and through the parking lot. She didn't have a car, but her home was only a few blocks away from school so the walk was easy. Puck wasn't entirely sure why he was going along with this, but Rachel was entirely willing to have private relationship conversations at school so whatever she was hiding, it was probably good.

When they got into her house, she led him straight up to her room and closed the door, and Puck was starting to think that maybe making out was in his immediate future after all. He sat down on the bed and she sat down next to him, and just as he was planning how he could get that sweater off and slip his hands up her skirt, she started to talk. "I know what you can do," she said.

"You should be more specific, baby. I can do a lot of things."

There was a sigh and Rachel stood up, went into the bathroom, and came back with a glass of water. "I tend to keep an eye on my fellow glee club members. I like to know if they're concealing hidden talents, like Tina being a somewhat competent dancer and Santana having a surprisingly nice voice." She drained the water out of the glass and continued. "And I've seen you, too. You step out of the way of slushies and bad dancing and football tackles just in time. You drive much too fast, but you stop and avoid pedestrians and animals and other cars like you've seen them coming."

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. No one knew about his little trick, and it was only a little trick. He'd figured out how to see two minutes ahead, everything that could happen if he made a specific decision, when he was a freshman trying out for football. It was pretty much one of the best things possible when it came to sports, where every decision had a fairly immediate consequence. It would have helped win if the Coach had ever listened to him, or his teammates had any kind of talent. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do," Rachel said, sighing and setting her empty glass down on the bare table next to her bed. "And I needed to let you know that I know, because you're not the only one at McKinley."

He was just about to call her crazy and leave as quickly as he could when she took a step back, looked down at the glass, and began to sing. Just one note, not a word or part of a song or particularly loud or high-pitched, but the glass on the table vibrated. He felt a hum on the exposed skin of his arms before the glass cracked, then shattered, the shards becoming smaller as he watched them crumble to the surface.

The silence when she stopped singing felt like a heavy, wet blanket. "So you're . . ." he trailed off, unable to say the word when it came to the possibility that it would fit him.

"I'm a mutant." She carefully brushed the glass shards into the trashcan with a paper towel, the pieces hitting the bottom with tinkling, sharp sounds. "I manifested when I was eleven. Are you all right? Say something, please, Noah."

Puck considered leaving again, but something about this entire situation was hot as shit and he stayed put. Within the last thirty seconds, Rachel had gone from hot, too-intense girl to hot, too-intense girl who might possibly be able to kill him. He'd be lying if that didn't shoot straight into his sex drive. "What else can you do?"

She smiled, a little rueful. "I can shatter things with the power of my voice. That's a pretty big adjustment on its own."

"Can you break other things?"

"Of course. Glass is the easiest because it's usually thinner than everything else and it has a frequency that is within easy human capability, but I can do other substances as well."

"Like what?"

"Pretty much anything with enough practice." She was smiling a little more brightly now, her movements fast and animated. "When I first got my powers I cracked the sidewalk outside of my house just by humming. It took forever to learn how to control them. What about you?"

Puck grinned. "I was fourteen. Figured out what was happening during football practice freshman year." He hadn't dared to think the word mutant back then for more than a panicked half-second. He'd certainly never said it out loud and wasn't planning on doing so anytime soon.

"How long did it take before you could control it?"

"Not long," he said, shrugging. It had only been a couple of weeks, all told, figuring out how to stop them from happening in the middle of things and how to make them start when he needed them. "What about you?"

"It took me a little longer," she said, "Remember when I went to that private school halfway through sixth grade? I was actually at a school where they teach mutants to control their abilities. It's a very good school."

"And you came back to McKinley?" If he had a chance to get out of Lima he would be gone as fast as he could go.

"I'm going to be a star one day," Rachel told him matter-of-factly. "And when that inevitably happens some intrepid paparazzi will undoubtedly go looking into my background for dirt. The school can't afford that kind of attention. It's the only place that most mutants can go when their powers emerge."

"So it's a freak school," he said. That took the shine off a little. A school full of mutant freaks, where they make you go to classes. Probably didn't have sports, either, since they couldn't exactly join a school league.

"It's a school for people like us," Rachel said firmly.

"Yeah, count me out of that one." Puck leaned back on her bed. "Does this mean you'll make out with me?"

"Everything I said on the bleachers just now is true. I still want Finn. You still want Quinn. I just thought it might be nice to know that you aren't the only one here."

Privately, he could admit that it was nice to know. Rachel had his back and she could potentially kill people with her voice. He could never admit that, though. He'd just have to show her his appreciation in other ways.

xxx

There was a specific type of walk that Rachel had perfected for when she was truly pissed off. Puck called it the Angel of Death walk in his head and that particular phrase did not need to be said aloud. She didn't need that kind of ammunition, even if that particular walk usually meant that someone was in for it.

She grabbed him by the bicep, nails digging into the skin, which, _ow_. "Shit, Rachel, don't do that."

"Did you get Quinn Fabray pregnant, Noah?" she asked, not bothering with hello or anything else like that. Moses forbid she be normal.

"No," he protested, a knee-jerk reaction. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

She rolled her eyes. "I've seen the way you are around her. And I'm a little psychic. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"I told you-," he started, only to be cut off by Rachel.

"Do not lie to me, Noah Puckerman!" Her dark eyes flashed and her small fingers dug in a little further. "Not only are you and Quinn lying to Finn about this child, you are putting the baby at risk because you aren't being honest about your genetics," she hissed, her voice a little quieter. "Forget about the fact that you're a mutant, there might be other things that the doctor needs to know. What if you're both carriers for some genetic disorder like cystic fibrosis?"

"Fine!" He jerked his arm away from her grasp and ran one hand through his mohawk. "Yeah, it's mine. And she won't let me have anything to do with it."

"You two need to tell the truth," she said, calmer now but just as immovable. "It's not fair to any of you, including the baby."

"Quinn's the one who won't let me be the dad," Puck grumbled. "And Mercedes said-,"

"Wait, Mercedes knows?"

"Yeah. I kind of told her by accident. She said it's Quinn's decision."

"It most certainly is not! As much as I uphold a woman's right to make her own choices, this one does not belong solely to her."

"If I go against Quinn she won't let me have anything to do with the kid."

Rachel frowned and stepped away. "All right then." She turned and walked back down the hallway, the Angel of Death thankfully gone from the movements. Puck knew that he probably should have been suspicious at how easily Rachel gave in, but he was so relieved that she'd dropped the subject that he didn't question it. When Finn's fist made contact with his eye in glee practice that afternoon he had a moment to regret that decision.

After the first blow, Finn didn't get another shot like that. He'd probably deserved the black eye that his best friend gave him, but Finn would have to earn the rest of the punches. The fight was short, like all high school fights usually were. Mr. Schuester stopped it fairly quickly, wading in and yanking the two of them apart away with surprising strength. "What's going on with you two?" he demanded.

Finn was glaring at Puck with more anger than the other boy had ever seen in his friend. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" he asked reflexively, even though he was fairly certain what this was about. Rachel never could keep her damn mouth shut. It was a damn miracle that she'd managed to keep her mutant thing secret for so long.

"You know what I'm talking about!" Finn shouted. Quinn was standing off to the side, her expression frightened, Rachel hovering in the background with a horrified look on her face. "Are you the baby's father?"

He couldn't even look at Finn when he answered. "Yeah. It's true."

Finn tried for another swing at him, but this time he was ready for it and managed to avoid it. "How could you?"

"You're the one who believed Quinn's story," Puck said, anger at this entire situation and every single person involved bubbling to the surface. He could already tell that they were all going to blame either him for knocking up the chastity queen or Rachel for telling Finn, and Quinn was going to get out of this scot-free.

Finn stormed out of the room and Quinn fled shortly afterwards, leaving Puck to take the fall like he'd already predicted. His eye was starting to swell a little and Rachel pulled him out of the room without a backward glance.

"You realize we're screwed for Sectionals now, right?"

She said something in a language he didn't know, but could guess was a curse word from the way she blushed immediately after. "I didn't know he would bail like that. I guess I should have guessed."

"We're already down a director since Mr. Schuester took the fall for the mattresses. Probably weren't going to win anyway."

"Nevertheless, it is important to try our best. I'll see about recruiting another member once you're at the nurse's office."

Her recruitment techniques managed to dredge up Jacob, and Puck squinted through his black eye and sighed. At least the creepy little dweeb was a warm body, even if he thought the guy needed to stay at least thirty feet from pretty much all of the girls, especially Quinn and Rachel.

They loaded up onto the bus the next afternoon, costumes in garment bags tossed in the back and slightly dispirited students in the front. Schuester was watching in the parking lot with a sad look, which, OK, whatever dude. It's not like you couldn't go and sit in the audience. He submitted to Kurt and Mercedes and their makeup skills once they got there, and the two of them managed to hide the worst of the bruising from Finn's fist. It didn't take them long, which meant that he was out in the audience with the rest of the group when the juvie girls snaked the song from Mercedes. He could see her shoulders slump and Rachel start to tense up, and he took a second to glance ahead and see that this was only get worse.

Proud Mary in wheelchairs made Artie drop his jaw in disbelief and Rachel was close to an explosion. Then the deaf kids started with 'Don't Stop Believing' and he was surprised that no one dropped to the ground with spontaneously shattered bones. Instead, Rachel marched into the dressing room with the rest of the club behind her and they tried to come up with a plan.

Rachel was the only one of them with a backup ballad prepared and Mercedes gratefully stepped away from the potential disaster and let her take the lead. In some ways it would have been easier to just have Rachel sing all three songs and let the rest of the group sway in the background, but it was obvious that not even Rachel wanted that. Quinn brought up 'Somebody to Love,' one of the few group songs that actually had choreography that they had rehearsed more than a couple of times.

While they were all trying to come up with a third number, Finn came riding in like some kind of knight with the sheet music for a song by the Stones. It was probably a testament to how talented this whole group was that they came up with something coherent in the forty minutes they had to work out dance moves and practice the different parts with just his guitar as a guide to the notes.

If they'd been up against any real, serious opposition they would have sunk almost immediately, but if the juvie girls had any actual talent beyond shaking their asses they probably wouldn't have stolen the set list in the first place. They managed to get through the whole thing without embarrassing themselves and come out in first place. Not bad for their first competition.

xxx

"Have you told Quinn the truth?" Rachel asked.

"Why in hell would I do that?"

"You know why, Noah. The X-gene often manifests more strongly in the next generation and it rarely follows the exact powers of the parents. She could arrive with a visible manifestation, or they could test her blood and discover that she's a mutant. Quinn needs to know about those possibilities.

"Quinn's not a mutant," he said, his voice desperate. "The baby might not have the gene at all."

"Or Quinn might have a dormant X-gene and the baby comes out far stronger than anyone could imagine. Without a complete DNA work-up it's impossible to be sure. She should be prepared."

"I don't want her knowing that I'm a freak, all right? She's already freaking out over the fact that I'm Jewish."

"Noah, Quinn deserves to know. What if the baby is born blue, or with green hair or cat's eyes? You were lucky, your gift is completely internal and controllable, but that isn't always the case. And even if she does _appear_ completely normal, that doesn't mean that she won't develop differently. Not only do you need to tell Quinn, you need to make plans to tell the adoptive parents you two pick."

"No way in hell," he snapped. "That shit is no one's business but my own."

"You're not listening to me!" Rachel's small hands went into fists and came up to rest on her hips. "As I said a moment ago, you were lucky. Do you know how hard it is to deal with the fact that you're suddenly eleven years old and when you do more than whisper it breaks a window in the house? I went for a month without speaking or singing when my powers first developed. It took three years to learn how to control them, and the whole time I was scared out of my mind because of it."

Puck felt the slight hum against his skin a second before the water glass on the counter cracked. Rachel clapped her hand over her mouth immediately, her eyes wide and terrified. He had never seen her lose control over her voice before and her frightened expression reflected exactly what he was feeling at that moment. Then his temper overrode the emotion. "Damn it, Rachel!"

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice quiet now. "You just . . .you have no idea how scary it can be. Neither one of my dads has the gene, so I got it from my birth mom and there's no way to contact her. It was three months after it started before we found the school and I spent that whole time afraid to sing because I'd crack the bathroom mirror or shatter the sidewalk. They had no idea how to handle it. If there's even the slightest chance that your daughter will develop anything more inconvenient than your ability, you have to warn them."

"No one's going to want a mutant baby, Rachel. If I tell them, they won't take her." There was a reason he'd never told his mother, after all.

"And that might be for the best, Noah. Some of the stories I heard from other students at the school made it clear how bad it can get. It would be better for them to reject her before she can be hurt by it than for her to become a teenager and be told to leave the house because of something over which she has no control." She hesitated, clearly weighing her words, before plunging in again. "I know you don't want to consider the school, but-,"

"No." He didn't think he needed to say more than that. She'd been nagging him about the school for freaks since she figured out what he could do and Noah was very much not interested. Up until Rachel had put the pieces together, no one else had ever known about his little trick and he was planning on keeping it that way.

She turned away and went to the now-useless glass, picking it up carefully and tossing it into the garbage can underneath the sink. "I promised to keep your secret and I will. And believe me, I understand the urge to keep this from other people. But your daughter deserves the best possible future. You're only hurting her chances by keeping this to yourself."

"I can't do it, Rachel. We both know that being in the glee club and being Jewish is the most I can handle. If someone calls me mutie on top of that I'll just completely fucking lose it."

Rachel flinched at the word. It was one of the few insults that had never been aimed in her direction, and deep down she was glad of that. The others were easier to take because they weren't true. "Don't tell Quinn," she finally said. "You're right, she won't be able to handle it. But you need to be very careful when you screen adoptive parents. Insist in face-to-face interviews and figure out whether they have any prejudices that might put the baby in danger."

"Right," Puck muttered. She had a point, of course. Rachel always had a point. And he could use his gift for glancing a couple of minutes into the future to figure out if the people were assholes. "I guess I can do that." He leaned back against the fridge. "What if . . .what if they're all worthless asswipes? What if none of them want her because she might be a mutant?"

"I can still contact the school. I'll leave your name out of it and tell them that a friend of mine has a baby that they're afraid to give up for adoption. There's an underground railroad for those types of things."

He blinked. "We have an underground railroad?"

"It's organized through the internet," Rachel told him, her expression brightening. "It's mostly used to help move mutant children to safe havens. Typical of any oppressed people, I suppose, though now most of the communication is done through e-mail. After all, we have to look after each other."

Puck might not be able to call himself a mutant, even here when it was just Rachel, but it was hard not to identify with them all the same. He'd started checking the future almost constantly in the first week after Karofsky hit him with a slushie, determined to avoid the humiliation again, but it had given him such bad migraines that he'd eventually stopped. Being an outsider was one of the worst experiences of his life. "And if that happens, they'll take care of her?"

"They'll test her DNA and even if she doesn't carry the gene she'll go to a good home," Rachel promised. "This is not the first time they've needed to handle such things." She reached up and hugged him and he let her do it. Rachel irritated him sometimes, especially the way she mooned over Finn and talked constantly, but she was pretty much the only one that knew about him and that made her important. "It'll be all right, Noah. Things will be fine."

The groaning sound of the front door opening made them separate and by the time Quinn walked into the room they were both sitting at the kitchen table, a stack of textbooks between them. "What's all this?"

"Rachel's helping me pass history," Puck told her, glancing up from an open notebook. It was true, after all, even if it wasn't what they'd been doing a moment ago. Rachel had pointed out that he was more likely to find some way out of Lima if he made some effort to study and then offered to give him a hand.

The blond looked skeptical, but she didn't say anything and after a moment's hesitation she brought her backpack to the table and joined them. "This is pretty much the last thing I would expect," she said.

"I feel no need to follow anyone's expectations," Rachel informed, almost absently. "Noah is an excellent study partner. It's a mutually beneficial situation."

Puck snorted but refrained from commenting. She'd said the same thing about making out, back during the week or so that they were dating. He wouldn't mind a reenactment of that particular 'mutually beneficial situation,' but he was pretty sure that she was still head-over-heels for Finn and he'd screwed up enough for his friend. Besides, he had enough to deal with now that Quinn had moved into the house with his baby in her belly.

If he tried hard enough, he could practically see his baby mama biting back the sharp words she no doubt wanted to direct at Rachel. Instead, though, she pulled out a physical science textbook and cracked it open.

They stayed that way for an hour or so, Rachel humming under her breath while she worked through her pre-calculus problems and occasionally walking him through his questions before packing up her things and heading home. Puck walked her out the door and then turned around to Quinn's stare. "I didn't know you two were close."

He shrugged and walked around her into the kitchen. "We're friends or whatever. She helps me with school and shit and I keep the worst of the jackasses away." They were a little more than that, really, but none of that was Quinn's business. Now that he and Finn were on the outs, Rachel was pretty much his only real friend.

"It's a little strange, that's all. You were the first person to throw a slushie at her, after all."

"And that was a dumbass thing to do, but she's over it and I'm over it. We're friends."

"Then why did she tell Finn about the baby?"

"Probably because she thought it was the right thing to do." And because she had a thing for Finn, but that was just going to make problems right now. He didn't need Quinn and Rachel at odds right now. He needed them both if he was going to come out of this without completely losing it.

"But don't you think it's a little weird, since you two used to date?"

"Look, I'm not going to deny that my mom would like nothing more than for me to shack up with Rachel Berry and give up a houseful of Jewish grandbabies, but I'm pretty sure we all know that ain't happening." He was tired suddenly, the last few weeks of excessive drama draining out his will to live or whatever. "Look, Quinn, I know you're pretty much only here because you don't have anywhere else to go, but please just leave this alone. You've made it pretty clear I'm not going to be getting any from you, and I'm not doing it with Rachel either. Just let it go."

xxx

Rachel was always on his radar on some level, even though she was dating that ass named Jesse and he had this complicated mess with Quinn. They were friends now, friends with mutual secrets, and he knew she had his back just as much as he covered her. So when she suddenly became very, very quiet Puck knew something was up. Rachel Berry had an opinion about everything and never hesitated to share it.

Then word got around through the glee gossip circle that she had laryngitis or something and that she hadn't spoken a word all day, and Puck got a little nervous. Kurt had seemed cattily pleased that Rachel had been silenced when he'd shared the news with Quinn at lunch, but Puck knew better. Rachel never got sick, especially when it was related to her throat. It was probably another twist to her mutant abilities or something, according to Rachel, and she had smiled when she'd admitted that it was one of the perks.

He cornered her in the hallway between lunch and fifth period, pulling her aside despite her resistance. "What the fuck's wrong, Berry?"

Her hands came up and flashed a quick movement before her face filled with frustration. She opened up her notebook to a blank back page and scribbled out a quick reply. 'Having control problems.'

Shit. It would be funny, if it wasn't fucking terrifying. "Why?"

'Stress,' she wrote. 'School and Glee and lessons. Jesse is out of town. He didn't call.'

"Damn it, just dump his ass. We all know he's here because he's trying to steal you for Carmel."

'He likes me.'

"He's a son of a bitch who's only interested in what benefits Jesse St. James. You can do better." Fuck, how had this conversation turned into giving her relationship advice?

Her hands flew up in another aborted gesture and she huffed out an exasperated breath before scribbling on the notepad. 'It's not fair to talk about this kind of thing when I can't talk back and you can't read sign.'

"No, but it makes it much, much easier. Did your dads call someone about it?"

'Waiting. I need to take care of stress.'

Puck lifted one eyebrow and grinned. "You know what a good way to take care of stress is, Berry?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded before writing again. 'Knew you'd say that.' She shook her head in a fairly emphatic denial and walked away. Puck watched her go, appreciating the view even if he wasn't going to go there.

xxx

If her stress levels had been high before, with Jesse and Finn and Glee, Shelby tipped the scales almost entirely. It was one of the great tragedies, in Rachel's opinion, that no one but Noah and her dads would ever understand how lucky she was that she had enough control to perform at Sectionals. Her meeting and subsequent rejection with her birth mother resulted in every bit of glass in her car dissolving into powder, and when Jesse and his teammates met her out in the parking lot and egged her Rachel came incredibly close to using her abilities on a human being for the first time.

Even more upsetting than Shelby's rejection, there was no sign at all that the woman was an active mutant of any kind. It would have been so nice to have someone else who understood what it was like to have this kind of gift and to need to keep it secret, someone a little more mature than Noah Puckerman. Rachel had been looking for a mentor ever since she left the school, but so far the only other mutant she had met in Lima was a teenage boy with questionable judgment when it came to sex.

When Shelby looked a little too interested in the baby that was practically delivered onstage at Regionals, Rachel contacted the Professor. Dr. Grey showed up almost ridiculously fast, met very briefly with Noah and Quinn, and left with the baby that Noah had been calling Beth. That had been the plan all along, after all, even if Quinn would never know who the tall, redheaded woman had really been. After the way Shelby had reacted to Rachel, there was no way she was going to let the woman anywhere near her best friend's daughter.

She wasn't quite sure how Glee managed to stay on for another year after they (unfairly) lost Regionals, but she wasn't about to question it. Being in Glee club, being a part of something special, helped, and it helped that she was able to practice singing without losing control on a regular basis. She couldn't say that, of course, when they sang to Mr. Schuester and shared what Glee club had meant to each one of them, but Noah at least knew.

The last three months of school zipped past in a blur of studying and finals. Mr. Schuester scheduled rehearsals once a week, more to have fun singing and to start thinking about next year than for any specific performance in mind. Rachel tried to institute summer practices, mostly so she could have something fun to do to break up her classes that summer, but the rest of the club was pretty much lukewarm about it. She couldn't even talk Finn into anything like that, since he was mostly interested in make-out time, and Noah wasn't in any frame of mind to do anything that reminded him of the baby girl growing up somewhere else.

xxx

It was the first summer that Rachel had ever experienced with a boyfriend and it was surprisingly difficult to lie to Finn about where she would be going when she headed back to Xavier's for a couple of weeks. Dr. Grey was the only person she could trust when it came to her medical records and her fathers insisted that she show up twice a year for a physical, usually at summer and winter break. Any other doctor might insist on taking blood, which was way too big of a risk, and a very observant one might notice that there was something different when he checked out her throat. Her vocal cords were structured slightly differently from a human baseline

She tried to talk Noah into going along with her, since he would have similar problems and could probably use a glimpse into the mutant community, but he passed for football practice and said he'd find ways around any blood drawing at his physical. Her fathers didn't tag along, not because they were uncomfortable but because it was a little too difficult to get the time off of work, so Rachel went alone.

The school was pretty much the same, in all the ways that mattered. Students and even teachers would come and go, though there were a few who had nothing outside of the school and stayed year-round. Professor Xavier was always there, of course, and the building itself hadn't really changed in the time she'd been attending. Having spent four years here when her powers first manifested, Xavier's felt like home almost as much as the house she shared with her fathers in Ohio. If it hadn't been for Finn and Noah back in Lima, Rachel would have had a hard time leaving this time. This past year had been hard, and this was the only place where she could be herself without any repercussions. Without the lure of a boyfriend and the responsibility of helping watch out for Noah while he adjusted to all of this, she would have given in to the urge for safety and acceptance and stayed.

In the end, she stayed for two weeks and then boarded the plane back to Ohio. She wanted her boyfriend and her friends and singing with the New Directions and nothing else even came close, not even the security of being surrounded with other mutants. Rachel Berry was going to be a star, no matter what, and Xavier's would be there if she needed it.

Two-a-days were starting up when she got back, which left her feeling a little bereft, but Rachel consoled herself with extra dance classes and attempts at bonding with her other Glee club members. It was easiest to reach Mercedes and plan things with her and by extension with Kurt, even if the other girl's attitude towards mutants was completely uncomfortable. Despite everything, she didn't quite have the courage to call up any of the cheerleaders. Tina was busy with some sort of summer camp, Artie was involved in a fairly detailed video project, and all of the other boys in the club were also football players.

The excursions with Mercedes and Kurt almost inevitably led to the mall and often to an attack at Rachel's wardrobe, but they were better than sitting in her house all alone every afternoon. She spent most evenings with Finn, but he was usually so wiped out from practice that he went to bed almost ridiculously early.

Noah wasn't quite so tired out by practices, but he was still doing some version of his pool-cleaning business (Rachel refused to think about whether or not he was currently partaking of the side-benefits of that business) and it ate up most of his free time. In some ways he was just as devoted to getting out of this town as Rachel, though he took his own unique approach to it.

The first day of school was almost a relief. Despite the likelihood of slushies and name-calling, she would have enough to keep her busy and she would probably see more of both her boyfriend and Noah once they were all in school. Besides, she missed singing in a group. When left to her own devices Rachel's vocal rehearsals usually became more exercises in control and not really something she enjoyed. The only real fun she'd had with singing had been when she and Noah had driven out past the edge of town one Sunday and she'd demonstrated how her power worked, methodically demolishing an abandoned building and basking in Noah's delight and admiration. It figured that she'd finally get that kind of attention when it involved destruction.

Finn was a little more awkward with her in the school hallways than he had been when they'd spent time together during the summer, but he was still sweet and openly affectionate and everything she'd ever wanted in a leading man. Rachel could handle anything that came her way with him by her side and Noah as her friend.

xxx

This had been a long time coming. It was a continuous surprise to Puck that she'd actually held out this long, because if he'd had any kind of ability to kick the ass of someone like these assholes besides his fists he would have used it. Rachel let the personal insults and slushies just slide right off of her, but if one of those jackasses went after anyone she'd claimed (admittedly, this was pretty much limited to the members of the glee club) then he'd better be prepared for a fight. The thrill seeker in Puck was admittedly turned on a little by the fact that Rachel could kill him without lifting one tiny finger, and he couldn't help but laugh at how many people took their lives in their hands when they antagonized her.

Right now she was standing in front of Kurt Hummel, her chin tilted up to look the mullet-wearing hockey player in the eye. Puck was standing next to her and he could feel the hum against his skin as she told the asshole off. There was a crack in the cinderblock wall behind the guy and as much as he didn't want that wrath turned in his direction, she was going to blow her secret wide open. He closed his eyes for a second and looked ahead. In one future the cracked wall disintegrated completely, and it was actually the least gruesome of the outcomes. The hockey player ended up with various broken bones, depending on how he moved while Rachel yelled at him, and one of those cases ended with him dead because his entire rib cage was turned into splinters that tore into his lungs and heart. Karofsky came around the corner and shoved her into a locker and she cracked her skull and died almost instantly. A chunk of the ceiling fell down and killed her, Kurt, and Mullet-boy. He saw all of the possibilities in a split second, and none of them were good. "Rachel, stop it."

She kept going with her stream of insults instead. "You're all petty, small-minded Neanderthals and brainless thugs who only care about shoving down the people who stand out, destined to live your meaningless lives stuck in some dead-end job while Kurt moves on to better things."

The hum against his skin became more intense until it was almost a buzz, and Puck threw caution to the wind and grabbed her wrist. "Rachel," he hissed into her ear. "Stop. You're about to out yourself to the entire school."

She stopped mid-sentence and he turned his attention to the idiot in front of him. "Get lost," he snarled, and the guy showed the first glimmer of intelligence by scurrying back down the corridor and disappearing around the corner. He had to get Rachel and Hummel away before he came back with some buddies.

It wasn't hard to haul the kid to his feet and hustle the two of them down the hall into the empty choir room. He shut the door behind them and blocked it off with a chair for good measure as the final bell rang. The last thing they needed right now was even more of an audience.

Hummel stumbled into a chair, his face pale. "What the hell just happened?"

Puck ignored the demanding tone of his voice. "You stay over there. Rachel's freak-out takes priority over yours, Hummel."

"But . . .," the young man began, only to shut his mouth with an audible click at Puck's glare.

That taken care of, he turned his full attention to Rachel. She was similarly pale, her pupils blown as she stared at him. "What almost happened, Noah?"

"Rach, calm down. Nothing happened."

"Something almost happened, though. What did you see?"

"We'll talk about that later."

"No, we'll talk about it now!" He felt the familiar hum against his skin and looked up to see the windows vibrating. Time to pull out the big guns.

"Rachel, you're about to wreck the choir room and maybe your singing voice two weeks before sectionals if you don't calm the fuck down," he said, and her mouth closed just as fast as it had out in the hallway. "All right. Deep breaths."

She pulled the first one in, a little shaky. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Hummel! Trash can!" The plastic can appeared at his elbow almost instantly, the other kid hovering a little too closely for comfort, and Puck shoved it between Rachel's knees just in time. He pulled her hair back in one hand while she puked, because she would spend the rest of the afternoon bitching about it otherwise, and waited until she was done. "Better?"

She nodded. "Water?"

Puck flicked his eyes to the backpack he'd abandoned by the door. "Hummel, get my bag," he ordered. There was a bottle in there that he hadn't opened yet. It would do.

She rinsed her mouth out and spit into the trash can before cautiously sipping from the bottle. "Do you think the whole school knows already?"

Puck shoved the trash can as far away as possible without getting up. "I don't think that dumbass mullet-head has the brain cells to figure it out. You're going to have to explain it to Hummel, though."

xxx

They turned to look at him in eerie unison and Kurt felt his panic ratchet up a few more notches. The two of them were each intimidating in their own manner, but combined it was scary as hell, especially when you consider that _the wall had cracked and the windows had been shaking. _"What's going on?"

"What the hell do you think is going on?" Puck replied, his expression grim. He didn't say anything further, and Rachel was oddly silent as well.

Kurt wet his lips. He'd never considered himself a coward, really. He'd endured dumpsters and slushies and shoves into lockers for being himself and never once considered toning down his personality so that he could blend in a little better. This was a little different, though, and while the words were at the front of his mind he couldn't quite get them out. "You're . . ."

"Just spit it out, Hummel." Puck's glare turned up to nuclear and he stood up. "We all know that the word you're thinking of is mutant."

It was exactly what he was thinking, of course, and it made so much sense. "Rachel's a mutant," he breathed, and he saw her tense up.

"We both are," Puck growled. He'd missed the look Rachel gave him, all quick surprise that was quickly glossed over, but Kurt saw it and couldn't help but wonder.

"Please don't tell anyone." Rachel stood up and moved next to Puck, her hand on his arm but her attention entirely on Kurt. "You know what would happen if anyone knew."

"People might be surprised, but I think they'd get over it, especially in Glee," Kurt argued, and Puck snorted out a laugh.

"Bullshit. I've sat here in this room and heard Mercedes argue for mutant registration."

Kurt knew this. He'd taken part in those discussions, after all, and Mercedes' argument had merit. In retrospect, it suddenly made sense why Rachel hadn't shared her opinion when the subject was introduced. "Only for the dangerous ones," he said.

"The dangerous ones?" Puck asked, his voice low and threatening. Rachel shook her head and tightened her grip on his arm.

"Who gets to decide what makes a person dangerous, Kurt? Are you going to register anyone who knows a martial art?" She had her show face on, the expression masking everything that she might be feeling. "Which one of us is more dangerous right now, me or Noah?"

At this moment, he was leaning toward Puck for that particular category, but he couldn't forget what had happened out in the hall not even ten minutes ago. "I think . . .I think you're both dangerous," he finally said.

"You got that right. But I'm only dangerous because if you keep looking at us like that I'm going to beat your face in with my badass guns. It's got nothing to do with being a mutant."

The chair in front of the door scraped across the tile floor and in the ten seconds it took for Mr. Schuester to come into the room Puck's body language switched from aggressive to something much more neutral. "What are you guys doing in here? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Rachel's sick, Mr. Shue." Puck gestured to the stinking trash can for proof and the teacher grimaced. "She couldn't make it to the bathroom and this was the only place that didn't have a class right now."

"Is that true, Rachel?"

The girl nodded and Kurt felt admiration for her acting skills for the first time. "I really need to go home, Mr. Schue," she said, her voice softer than he'd ever heard it. "Can Noah and Kurt please help me?"

Mr. Schuester looked at all three of them and Kurt was sure that his somewhat stricken expression was being taken the wrong way. Rachel, of course, had a spotless record when it came to school matters on her side, and Kurt would freely admit that the Glee kids tended to get a little more leniency from the man than they really deserved. "I don't think that will be a problem," he said. "I'm guessing you'll be missing practice."

"I hope to be fully recovered by tomorrow," she said, her normal sparkle and energy gone. That was likely what had convinced him in the first place, and it was a very nice touch. He'd never realized how good of an actress Rachel Berry really was.

He walked them out to the parking lot, and watched them all climb into Kurt's SUV. "I hope you feel better soon, Rachel. Puck, Kurt, you two come right back when you're done."

"Sure thing, Mr. Schue," Puck said, his tone agreeable. It was the same way he used to sound when he was preparing to get away with tossing Kurt into a dumpster. The teacher smiled one last time and headed back into the school and Puck helped Rachel into the back seat. "Drive, Hummel. You know how to get to Rachel's house."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Kurt said. It had been a year since he'd been tossed in a dumpster, but he remembered what that look said. That particular expression had retribution written all over it.

"We need to talk about what happened, Kurt." Rachel seemed a little more lively now that they were away from the school. "And it's not something that should really be discussed in public."

"You promise you won't kill me and dump my body in the gutter?"

"In case you missed it, the only reason you even know about it is because she was defending you," Puck pointed out. "Maybe you should give the anti-mutant propaganda a rest." There was an insufferable smirk aimed at him via the rearview mirror. "It's really offensive when you judge us by such stereotypes."

He caught a blur of motion out of the corner of his eye, probably one of Rachel's tiny fists, and saw Puck flinch a little. "We're not going to hurt you, Kurt."

"I might."

Rachel rolled her eyes and continued as if there had never been an interruption. "We only want to talk. That's all, I promise."

Kurt put the vehicle into gear and drove. What else could he do?

xxx

Her dads were both at work, which was perfect for Rachel. Hopefully she could manage to keep this whole incident from them, because they had been against her coming back to Ohio in the first place. Xavier's was much safer, after all, and there was little doubt that she was receiving a better education while she was there. She'd actually had to work for her A's, unlike here at McKinley where she could practically do all of her work in her sleep.

Noah headed straight for the liquor cabinet, which made her wrinkle her nose, but she didn't really say anything. He knew better than to drink to excess in the middle of the day, especially when he had to go back to school this afternoon (and he better go back to school). Rachel went for a bottle of water and offered one to Kurt, who shook his head mutely. Her throat felt a little raw, between the accidental power usage and the throwing up, and she put the kettle on for some herbal tea as well. "All right. Let's talk."

"Does Finn know?" Kurt asked immediately, and Rachel winced. She supposed that she should have been expecting that particular question. Her boyfriend was well on his way to becoming Kurt's stepbrother and Kurt took that responsibility seriously.

"No," she said, glancing over at Noah. He'd been arguing that she should tell Finn recently. "I'm not ready for that. It's hard enough to balance our relationship without telling him I can kill people with my voice. Other than my parents, no one but Noah knows."

Kurt paled a little. "You can kill people?"

She felt Noah move in a little closer. "Yes, in theory," she admitted. "But I never have, and I don't intend to do so."

"So what happened in the hallway?"

"I lost control," Rachel told him carefully. "Strong emotions tend to amplify a person's abilities while simultaneously making them more difficult to control, and Rick made me so angry when he shoved you into the lockers like that."

The feeling was still fresh in her mind, the rage rolling under her skin until she'd felt like she was literally vibrating. The Professor had always advocated control of both the emotions and the abilities, of not letting what you could do control you instead. He would probably be disappointed that she'd lost her temper, though Rachel was confident that she was in the right in this situation.

If she couldn't convince Kurt to keep the secret, she wouldn't be going back to McKinley. Mutant pride was all well and good, but she was already the annoying, abrasive girl with too much talent and two gay dads. There was no way she was also going to be a mutant freak, especially when you consider that they'd probably make her quit Glee Club and pretty much any sort of activity where she sang with the 'dangerous' label slapped onto her back. Rachel would head back to Xavier's within a week if that happened, and she couldn't help but hope that she could drag Noah along this time. After all, they'd likely make him quit football and his other sports teams as well, and today was the first time she'd ever heard him claim his mutancy.

"What would have happened if you had kept going?"

Noah surprised her by answering before she could get a word out. "The wall would have come down," he said, no doubt listing one of the possibilities he'd seen. Rachel still wanted to know what else he'd seen, but that would be a conversation for another time, when they didn't have one of the school's biggest gossips listening in. "Look, are you going to keep your mouth shut or what? 'Cause if you're going to put this out to your little coffee klatch we need to know."

Kurt shook his head. "I won't tell anyone," he said, his voice a little harsher than normal. "But I won't cover for you, either. No one should be forced to stay in the closet."

"I wasn't asking you to cover for me, jackass. Just keep your mouth shut for the time being."

Rachel sighed. "Despite the rude manner in which he stated it, I agree with Noah. I'm only asking for your silence."

"And you should tell Finn."

"Not yet," she told him. "Not until I know how he'll handle it. It's not really safe for either one of us." She rather tactfully didn't elaborate on whether she meant for her and Finn, or her and Noah. Truthfully, she wasn't entirely sure which one either and didn't really want to spend much time exploring it.

"All right, good to know. Now, let's get something to eat." Noah disappeared into the kitchen. Rachel's stomach was still unsettled after her slip in the school hallway, the idea of what might have happened making her queasy even now, but she rolled her eyes and followed him. She had learned long ago that Noah could wreak havoc on a kitchen and she didn't want to spend the night cleaning up. Besides, she could really use that tea now.

When she glanced back at Kurt, her friend was still sitting on the couch, staring at her with a strange expression on his face. That wasn't something she needed to be thinking about right now, so she tucked it away for later and focused on keeping Noah Puckerman from entirely destroying her kitchen in his quest for a snack.

She and Finn weren't going to last much longer. Every time she tried to tell him about how she was a mutant, the words caught in her throat. She loved him, probably more than she should have, but experience had taught her that she couldn't trust him. Rachel was determined to enjoy it as much as she possibly could before it all fell apart.

xxx

Sectionals came and went with their usual drama. Rachel was pissed at Finn for lying to her sometime last year. That girl could hold a grudge like no one else. Santana was angry at the world in general and being a bitch about it, but for some reason she'd focused her ire on Rachel specifically. Shue didn't stay out of the arguments like he should have, but somehow they all managed to pull together and at least tie for first place and move on to Regionals. Last year they hadn't scheduled practices over winter break, but Rachel insisted and Shue backed her for once. They met up for the first rehearsal two days after Christmas, the whole group slowly dragging in and grumbling. He didn't know what their problem was. Practice wasn't until ten in the morning and Rachel had come over and dragged him out of bed before eight.

They were in the middle of brainstorming song ideas and about to take a break. Puck saw Rachel's hands fly to her head a split second before the pain shoved its way into his own skull. One tiny corner of his brain managed to note how she'd dropped to the floor as his own knees gave way and he joined her. He was dimly aware of voices raised in alarm all around him, but the agony in his head took up most of his attention. Rachel turned towards him, eyes wide and dark and terrified and he knew that whatever was happening it had hit the only two mutants in glee club.

He had no way of knowing how long they stayed like that while the feeling of something grabbing onto his mind invaded his entire body, but when it stopped they were both too wrung out to do much more than climb into chairs while Mr. Schue hovered over both of them. Whatever had happened, it was fairly obvious to Puck that it had only affected mutants and that Rachel, his personal expert in mutant matters, was just as lost as he was.

Then the other people in the room dropped to the floor in just the same way he remembered doing a second ago, and he was even more confused. Rachel stood up despite her obvious dizziness, her eyes on Finn even as she dropped down next to Brittany. "Help them, Noah?" she asked, her voice oddly raspy. "We can't let them get hurt."

He did as she asked, probably a little less gently than she'd have liked. Most of the other members were already safely down on the ground, clutching their heads in the same familiar agony that he'd just experienced. Mr. Schue was still aware enough to notice him through the pain and he did his best to reassure the teacher even if he still had no clue what was going on.

It was over after two panicked minutes, leaving the others groggy and only mildly coherent. Rachel was a little better than he was and she already had her cell phone out. "You calling your dads?"

She nodded, eyes on the device. Puck let out a shaky breath and reached for his own phone. They needed an ambulance here, as soon as they could make it happen. He looked down at Mr. Schue as the older man started to get up and frowned at the spiderweb of cracks on the floor. That had been exactly where Rachel had been when they'd both collapsed.

There was no signal from either cell phone, and Puck cursed as he closed his up and shoved it into his pocket. He had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that he had to get away from the other members of the glee club before they started asking questions, and he needed to check on his mom and Hannah. Besides, he had a feeling that Rachel had figured something out, given the expression on her face. "We need to go," she said, her voice a little stronger. "They'll be all right, Noah, but we need to leave right now."

Puck watched as she glanced over at Finn and the tall boy flinched and looked away from Rachel. The hurt in her expression was come and gone before it really registered and she spun on her heel and headed for the door. He followed her as she hurried out of the choir room. "You know something," he said once they were clear of the school.

"I have an idea." She walked a little faster, her eyes flicking from him to the cell phone in her hand. "And I think we might have a big problem." She held up the device, showing the 'No Service' message currently blinking at the top. "I have a feeling that hit more than just us."

Puck swore and kicked at the trash can. "I've got to get home, right now."

Rachel nodded and headed towards his truck. "Your mom and Hannah, then my dads. I'll tell you my theories on the way."

He needed to give her a boost, as always, since his truck sat about a foot higher than most vehicles, but he did it as quickly as possible and ran around to the driver's seat like Coach Beiste was running drills with a shotgun in hand. There wasn't much active traffic as he drove, disregarding any sort of posted speed limit in a bid to get to his mom and sister, though they could both hear sirens in the distance.

She started talking immediately. "There was this really intense pressure in my head the whole time. Same thing for you?"

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "Like someone was trying to grab onto me and was holding on way too tight."

"Exactly!" She beamed for a second, probably because someone had actually followed along with her line of reasoning and agreed with her, and then went back to the matter at hand. "I've never felt anything on that scale before, but at the school there are a few telepaths and if you multiply a usual telepathic contact by at least one thousand, that's what I imagine it would feel like. The problem is, there aren't that many telepaths out there that are truly powerful enough to do something like that even at close range. The only way I can think of to make it happen should be locked away at the school, so either someone got in or someone accessed the plans."

"Wait, there are telepaths that can do that?"

"I've only met two," Rachel admitted. "A lot of people are mildly telepathic, but most of them can't really do anything. The few who can are really, really careful to keep it quiet."

"I bet," he muttered. "So, telepathic attack."

"It didn't feel like an attack. It was more like someone trying to reach out using their powers and pushing too hard, like they don't know their own strength." Rachel's voice had mostly evened out now, back to its usual smoothness. It made him a little less tense

"So why did it hit us first, and then everyone else?"

"I have no idea," Rachel said. "But I think whoever did it just outed every mutant in existence, if people start putting things together."

"You think our cover's blown, don't you?"

"I think there's a good chance that we've just been dragged out of the mutant closet, yes. Kurt knows exactly what makes the two of us different from everyone else in Glee Club, and I don't know if he'll continue to keep the secret now. People are going to panic. I don't think the telepath intended to attack, but that's what everyone's going to call it. We need to be ready when that happens."

Puck noted the when, not if, of her sentence as he turned down his street and roared into the driveway, braking raggedly. Some part of him wondered if she'd been preparing to get slapped with the mutant label for a long time.

His mom's car was in the garage, which was a relief. She wasn't scheduled to work tonight, but it was still early afternoon and she could have been out running errands with Hannah in the car, which was usually what she did on her days off. There were a hundred different things that could have happened to them out there. He called out as soon as he'd cleared the door, Rachel at his heels. "Mom?"

There was a sound upstairs, almost too faint to hear, and Puck was on the stairs without a conscious decision. He tried to access his ability as he ran, but the effort made him stumble in his headlong rush and he abandoned it and the instant headache that came with it. He followed the noises, which were starting to grow louder, and crashed into his mother's bedroom with Rachel close behind.

Hannah was up and moving, energetic enough that she was probably hit in the first wave and that was something he would think about later. Rachel had probably already noted it, made the appropriate conclusions, and moved on to the matter at hand, because she pushed past him and pulled his sister away.

With his sister taken care of (because, seriously, Rachel would probably kill to protect her. Those two had struck up some weird friendship based on their mutual love of Disney movies back when Quinn had still been living with them) Puck focused on his mother. She was on the floor, struggling to stand up and not quite making it, so he helped her up and onto the bed. "I think I hit my head," she mumbled, clearly a little bit incoherent, and Puck felt like a horrible son. Because they'd been in the house, neither one of them realized the scale of what had happened and Puck wasn't planning on filling them in on what Rachel thought.

At several times during his adolescence Puck had been waiting for his mother to kick him out of the house, most recently because of all the problems with Quinn. He'd always had a sneaking suspicion that if she figured out her son was a mutant that would be the last straw, so he was glad to delay that for a little while longer. Now, though, there was a slightly bigger problem.

Rachel had already pulled Hannah out of the room, working on calming his little sister down, and Puck sat down next to his mother and reluctantly looked forward again. It still hurt a little, but it wasn't quite as bad as it had been when he'd tried on the steps.

He told her everything and she did exactly what he'd been waiting for and kicked him out. Rewind, and he skipped over the mutant thing and explained exactly what had just happened. His mother laughed at him. He told her what he suspected about Hannah and about himself, and she kicked them both out. After a half-dozen attempts Puck realized that there was no way she was going to be able to handle any of the truth, not now. It might work better tomorrow after she'd had time to readjust, but for now there was no way he was telling her anything. "Just take a nap. I'll keep an eye on Hannah."

His mother nodded, holding her head between both hands and lying back onto the bed. Puck waited until he was sure she was going to stay there before heading down the stairs. Rachel had Hannah sitting on the couch and was moving around in their tiny kitchen. After glancing at his sister and making sure she hadn't gone entirely 'round the bend, he joined Rachel in her quest for food and drink. "What do we do now?"

"I still need to get a hold of my dads," Rachel told him. "After that, I've got no idea. I'm fairly certain the school would be the safest place for all of us, but your mother isn't going to like it if we run off with Hannah."

It was nice to know that Rachel had picked up on that little clue as well. "Did you get to talk to her?"

"She had no idea what I was talking about when I tried to ask her about any abilities, but she had a sudden headache first, just like we did. Either her powers hadn't manifested yet or the . . .event latched on to her as a latent mutant, but there's no way of knowing without heading to the school. I may be your source of mutant knowledge, Noah, but I'm far from an expert on these things."

"So that's the plan?"

Rachel nodded and turned back to the cupboards, rummaging around for something easy and vaguely healthy to fix for Hannah. Puck wished her luck on that. His mother couldn't cook much more than macaroni and cheese. "That's my plan, anyway. Kurt was barely holding on to our secret as it was. Besides, I think Mr. Schuester put a few things together just now. He was close enough to see the floor cracking when I couldn't quite control my voice." He noticed that she didn't mention Finn and the way he'd flinched back from her earlier and there was no way he was bringing that up. Right now they needed a plan, and they didn't need Rachel to fall apart over Finn the idiot. "They'll never let me sing again, Noah, and that was practically the only thing that made that school bearable." She glanced at him and then away, carefully not looking at him. "You might be all right, though."

"It's not going to be hard to figure out that I'm just as much of a freak as you, Rachel." The words could have been cruel, but he didn't mean them like that and he was pretty sure that she knew that. "Whatever we're doing, you're not doing it alone."

He was hugging her before he was aware that he'd decided to do it and she relaxed into his embrace completely. No matter what happened, he would always have Rachel and she would always have him. Everything else would fall into place soon enough.

The phones were still down and there wasn't any food to be had here, so they packed up and headed over to Rachel's house. After a moment's consideration, Puck packed up a few things that he wouldn't have been able to live without and did the same for Hannah. Better to be prepared for the long-term. He was still trying to find the least painful way possible through this minefield, but deep down he doubted that he was going to get away completely intact. One way or another, his mom was going to end up making this painful.

Rachel half-carried Hannah out to the truck despite the fact that the eleven-year-old was nearly the same height and Puck followed behind them with the bags he had packed, snagging his guitar on the way. He resisted the urge to look back one last time. Chances were good that he wouldn't be back here again, and right now that was just fine.

The drive over was awkward. Hannah was sandwiched between him and Rachel, though she was starting to recover from her headache and ask questions about what was happening. His knee-jerk response that their mother was sick and they were going over to stay with Rachel was met with a level look full of skepticism and Puck sighed. "Something happened. I'm not sure we'll be all right at mom's house."

There was a look from Rachel, one that promised he would be spilling everything once they were away from Hannah's supposedly tender ears (he'd taught her how to cuss like a sailor when he was in sixth grade and she was in kindergarten, because he'd thought it was hilarious) and a huff from Hannah.

When they got to the Berry house, Rachel let out a sigh of relief at the sight of two cars in the driveway, presumably belonging to her fathers. They were both sitting on the couch when Puck followed Rachel inside, Hannah in tow, looking a little worse for wear but whole and alive. Puck ignored the hugs and mutual exclamations of worry, even though Hannah seemed fascinated by them, and dragged his sister into the kitchen. Rachel might have been into rabbit food, but her dads weren't and it wasn't hard to throw together a few sandwiches from the deli meat in the fridge. Hannah ate it quickly, crusts included. His sister had never really had the opportunity to be a picky eater.

Rachel was right behind them, slipping around him and getting a glass from the cupboard. There was a troubled look on her face as she filled the glass with water from the fridge tap. "Most of the television stations are down and the ones still operating are on programming loops. Daddy said that the radio is the same way. They're getting ready to try the internet."

He had been getting ready to start on a second sandwich, but the news made him lose his appetite. "Shit. That means whatever happened was big. Possibly worldwide big."

"Phone lines are still down, too." Rachel carefully sipped from her glass of water. "People will start to panic soon. We should get ready."

"What, get ready to leave?"

She gave him a steady look. "We just got outed as mutants to the biggest gossips at McKinley High. I'm not planning on waiting around for the torches and pitchforks."

"I need to tell my mom." He didn't bother to explain why. Rachel would get it. "You need to explain what's happening to Hannah." There was a moment of satisfaction that he'd managed to foist that responsibility off onto Rachel when she nodded in agreement, but it was overshadowed by the fact that he would be the one talking to his mother. He didn't need to look ahead to tell that this was going to suck major balls.

It was fairly obvious from Rachel's expression that she knew exactly who was getting the worst deal. "You're not going back over there alone," she said, lifting her chin and crossing her arms.

"Wasn't planning on it," he admitted. There was no way he wanted to have that conversation in person.

Rachel glanced at Hannah. His little sister was paying rapt attention to the two of them and their discussion, and there was no way she was going to leave the room now. "What did you see?"

"She kicks me out, every single time." And she'd kicked Hannah out the one time he'd mentioned his sister and mutant in the same sentence, but he was leaving that out of the telling for the moment. "I figure it'll be a little easier over the phone."

"Are you comfortable calling from the road on your cell phone? I don't want to lose the lead we have right now."

"Are either one of you going to tell me what's going on?" Hannah asked, standing against the counter with her arms crossed. She'd had a growth spurt recently and was nearly the same height as Rachel.

"We'll tell you on the road," Rachel promised. "Everything. But we need to go right now. I'll grab my bag and meet you guys outside in five minutes."

It would be a cozy fit in his truck for the very long drive ahead, but they didn't have many other alternatives. Rachel was ready in five, with a few last hugs to her fathers that were kept brief and thankfully non-weepy, and they started out. By the time they'd reached Mansfield, she'd told Hannah everything and promised her a demonstration of her abilities when they stopped for the night. None of them could figure out what Hannah could do. Whatever it was, it wasn't flashy and Rachel didn't seem too concerned about it for the moment.

They pulled over in Akron to fill the gas tank. The roads were starting to fill again, though there were far more emergency vehicles traveling around than normal, and the two of them had a discussion on avoiding attention that ended in the two of them pulling off of the interstate entirely to take the back roads.

He avoided the phone call with the simple fact that Rachel couldn't drive a stick shift and she was big on not talking and driving at the same time, especially on Ohio's back roads in the middle of winter, but once they'd pulled into a rest stop in Pennsylvania for the night she handed him the phone and herded Hannah into the rest room to clean up. It was too risky to stay in a motel, even with the cold weather making the prospect of sleeping in the truck unpleasant. There would be enough combined body heat to keep the cab of his truck reasonably warm despite the weather.

It rang three times on the other end before his mother picked up, and when she did it was clear she'd been drinking from the way she slurred out her hello. "It's me, Mom." He didn't look ahead. No sense in experiencing this more than once.

She was quiet for several moments and he could hear the television in the background. "Noah, are you a mutant?"

"Yes," he said, almost immediately. He wasn't sure how she'd figured it out, though there could have been something on the news by now. The three of them had been avoiding all of the news bites on the radio.

"Is Hannah?"

He was a little more cautious this time. "I think so, yeah."

"Don't come home." There was a rustle on the other end, something he couldn't identify. "I want the both of you to stay away."

Part of him wanted to fight, but he'd been preparing for this for years and by now he mostly just felt resigned. "You sure about Hannah?"

"You two are just like your father," his mother said, anger and bitterness in her tone. "I don't want to see either one of you freaks ever again." He heard a click and the line went dead.

He sat there in the growing dark for at least half an hour. He wanted to hit something, and he also wanted to curl into a ball and cry. The two urges mostly canceled each other out and left him feeling numb.

Rachel was back with Hannah after a decent length of time, her hair brushed and braided and her face washed clean of makeup. They didn't have the room to spare for sleep clothes, so she was still wearing the dress she'd worn to school that morning with her red coat buttoned up over it. Puck climbed into the passenger seat, needing the extra leg room, with Hannah in the middle and Rachel behind the wheel. It didn't take long for Hannah to get to sleep with the day she'd had and once he was sure that the girl was under he told Rachel what had happened, keeping his voice quiet and mostly steady. Once the story was over the girl leaned over and wrapped her arms around him in a brief, awkward hug. She didn't say anything, which Puck appreciated.

They fell asleep that way, Hannah resting her head on her brother's lap and Rachel against his opposite side, the three blankets he kept behind the seat draped over the group. He woke up once or twice in the night to formless nightmares, but the even breathing on both sides lulled him back under pretty quickly.

Morning was a bitch and it took a half hour to get his body loosened up after a night spent sleeping upright. Hannah woke up chipper and rattling off questions and she wouldn't let them pull out of the rest area without a demonstration of Rachel's abilities. They ate granola bars and drank bottled water as something to tide them over until they could reach civilization (also known as McDonald's) and could have something warm to eat and drink.

People were still pretty obviously spooked by yesterday's smackdown, but they were also working to get back to normal and there were more people on the road than he'd seen the day before. He was driving more carefully than normal, trying not to attract attention. There was no telling what his mother might have told the cops, after all, if she'd said anything at all to explain what had happened to her children.

Rachel made him stop every three hours or so for the bathroom and supplies and managed to keep him in enough Red Bull that he pushed through and drove straight through, even with the roadblocks and weather making the trip take twice as long as it should have.

The place was pretty torn up when they pulled into the driveway, but there were people blocking off windows and picking up broken glass even with the sun going down. Berry gave a tired wave, a day and a half spent in the cab of his truck apparently enough to wear off even her high-octane personality. She slid out of the truck and turned around for Hannah, who should have been her usual hyperactive self but was limp with exhaustion. Rachel couldn't actually lift his little sister, but she managed to get Hannah somewhat vertical and moving in the general direction of the building. Puck took a second to stretch before grabbing the bags and heading after them. He debated about his guitar, but there was no point in lugging the thing inside right now. It would wait.

There was a decently hot Asian girl sweeping up glass when they walked through the door. She abandoned the broom when Rachel steered Hannah inside and gave Rachel a tight hug, Hannah included since Rachel was more or less propping her up. There was a bruise on her cheek and a bandage across the palm of her right hand.

"What happened?" Rachel asked, her eyes fixed on the girl.

"There was a raid," the Asian hottie told her. She rubbed at the bandage, sparks jumping from the tips of her fingers. Puck took a startled step back. What the fuck was that? "Soldiers broke in and kidnapped anyone they could get their hands on." She bit her lip, dark eyes going distant. "Dr. Grey didn't make it."

Puck inhaled sharply and glanced over at Rachel. They were supposed to be safe here. That was the woman who'd taken Beth.

"Is the school safe?" Rachel asked, shooting a look over at Puck.

"The professor says it should be fine. Where else can we go, anyway? At least here we've got company."

Rachel looked like she wanted to argue about something, but before she could get a word out Puck heard glass crunching. They all turned to look at the sound, apparently caused by a wheelchair being driven by an old man, his bald head gleaming. "Rachel. This is a surprise."

"We were in the choir room with the biggest gossips that go to our high school when it happened," Rachel said, her tone matter-of-fact. "Noah and I decided that discretion was needed."

The man turned to Puck, faded blue eyes surprisingly intense. "It is wonderful to meet you, Noah. Welcome to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters." He smiled. "I think you and your sister should do very well here."

Epilogue

Steve had finally gotten to the point where SHIELD let him out into the world without an obvious chaperone. He had little doubt that they had eyes on him, of course, but he'd sadly become accustomed to that aspect of his new life and had learned how to ignore it, for the most part. Instead he focused his attention and energy on relearning New York.

Some parts of the city were unbelievably altered from the way he remembered, especially Times Square, but the deeper he went into certain places the more familiar his surroundings became. There was a diner in Brooklyn, for example, that Steve would swear was exactly the same as long as you ignored the prices. It quickly became one of his havens when everything else started to get overwhelming. Sometimes one of his teammates would even go with him, Natasha or Clint or Tony and once they even managed to drag Bruce along, and instead of being a babysitter they acted more like a friend.

It didn't take him long to learn the regulars. There were a handful of men from his generation, all of them depressingly old and bent and worn, who were there for coffee pretty much every day. They always made Steve a little self-conscious, but he forced it aside and talked with them for a few minutes whenever he came in. SHIELD hadn't publicized his face with his return and the newsreels back in the day hadn't shown him without the helmet, so he was never recognized. Steve considered that a mixed blessing.

Two women in their forties met there at least three times a week for dinner and a complaining session that centered around their teenage children. He never approached them beyond a simple nod of acknowledgement because they tended to look at him as if he was a steak and they were very, very hungry. It was very disconcerting to him, in fact, and he never sought out eye contact or tried to encourage them in any way. Women in general were far more forward than they used to be.

Every Sunday during breakfast a young couple came in and spent hours in a corner booth. They were easier to remember than most because the young man had his head shaved clean, and also because the two of them were so obviously in love. That was a little harder to look at than the old men with their coffee and their tales about the war, if only because Steve had never really had a chance to have that with Peggy Carter. The same couple came in every once in a while with a teenage girl in tow, apparently the young man's sister, usually in the evenings.

After six months he had learned the names of the waitresses (Julia and Jenny), the old men (Bob, Bill, John and Jim), and the couple (Rachel and Noah, with little sister Hannah). That last one was the hardest to accomplish, in some ways, because the two of them acted like they were the only people in the room sometimes. It had taken Steve forever to strike up a conversation with either one of them when they often didn't notice that their food had arrived. He enjoyed his small oasis from the world of being Captain America. Here he was simply Steve, the guy who came in and ordered the breakfast special and coffee no matter what time of day or day of the week it happened to be. He could strike up a conversation with anyone, about any subject that came to mind, and receive a multitude of opinions. It was everything he'd ever loved about New York City.

Of course, along with everything he loved that didn't seem all that different, there were a few things that had become markedly different. He'd never regarded the city as particularly safe, but he had a hard time imagining a couple of twitchy-looking guys with guns holding up a corner diner on a Sunday morning.

Julia had let out a little shriek when she caught sight of the guns and immediately dropped to the floor behind the counter, which was the most sensible reaction he could think of even if it wasn't exactly brave. Of the four old men, two had gone to early morning mass and only Bob and Bill remained. The two of them stayed very still, considering everything that was happening and likely deciding that as long as the men with guns only wanted money it wasn't worth the potential risk to challenge them. There was a trio of tourists in the booth closest to the door and they'd all emitted similar expressions of dismay, shrinking back and raising their hands, eyes wide with fear. They clearly weren't going to offer any sort of quarrel with the bad guys.

That just left Rachel and Noah in the corner booth, and while Noah would probably offer up a good brawl, Rachel didn't look like a fighter and the young man wasn't about to do anything that would put his girl at risk. That meant it was up to Steve, sitting at the counter, to stop those guys without letting them hurt anyone. It would have been really nice to have his shield on hand right about now.

He glanced over the diner once more as the taller of the gunmen called for them to hand over their wallets and purses. His partner went behind the counter to clean out the till and Julia made a startled squeak, more of surprise than pain, before the guy started in on the drawer and then hurried to rejoin his friend. Noah had his hands resting on the table, oddly calm for a guy that was usually incredibly protective towards the girl with him, and he was looking at Rachel.

The expression made Steve pause in his planning, because it wasn't exactly what he would have expected. There was a calmness in the young man's face, as if he knew that nothing bad was going to happen here. Rachel nodded once, the movement slight and subtle enough that he wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking directly at the two of them, and then she turned slightly in her seat, moving by centimeters until she was looking at the gunmen. Her gaze flickered to the ground underneath them and her mouth parted as if she was going to speak.

Steve felt an odd vibration in his chest, like the way it felt when the Hulk roared or when Thor's hammer hit something especially hard, but the feeling came and went too quickly for him to analyze it. Then the floor underneath the gunmen's feet crumbled and the two of them dropped unceremoniously into the basement below.

Noah snatched up Rachel's hand and rushed toward the door, followed by pretty much everyone else in the diner. Steve sighed, jumped down into the basement to knock the two out and pitch them back upstairs, and called in.

The debriefing was mercifully short and he left it still confused about what exactly had happened. He didn't believe in coincidence and that floor opening up had been a little too convenient for his tastes.

Tony was in his lab, working on something shiny and a little more complicated than made him comfortable. "We can't let you go anywhere, can we?"

"I'm pretty sure that it's not my fault that someone decided to rob the diner," Steve protested. "Anyway, all I did was take care of the clean-up."

"Spider-man get there before you could do anything?" Tony asked, his voice a little sympathetic. "That guy's quick, I'll give you that."

"It wasn't Spider-man. I'm still not sure what really happened."

"Okay, you have my attention. Tell me what you saw." Tony was looking at him with an expression that usually meant someone was about to get a new toy, or that he was going to blow the power to half the city. Either way it usually meant trouble, but the agents at the debriefing had been frustratingly vague and Tony would probably give him answers. He explained everything that he'd noticed, trying not to highlight any one thing. Tony liked to receive the raw data with as little color as possible.

When he was finished, his friend was still looking at him and hadn't immediately gone to the screens around him. "What have they told you about the x-gene?"

That was an easy one. "Absolutely nothing."

Tony nodded. "That's what I figured. All right, then. About the time you crashed that plane, certain individuals started to show up who were born with special abilities, rather than having them develop because of some accident or an experiment or something. It started pretty slowly and started to really build in the sixties. Scientists, one or two in particular, pinned these things as stable mutations of the human genome, usually showing up in what they call the x-gene. Right now there's an estimate floating around that around four percent of the population has the x-gene. My money would be on the lovebirds."

"Why wouldn't they tell me about this?"

"You read about the Civil Rights Movement yet?"

"Yes. I'm mostly caught up on history by now."

"Most people are divided on the idea of mutants. There's a fair chunk of the population that doesn't believe that they exist, a few supporters, and a lot of people who are running around scared because they think they're about to go extinct. It's kind of ridiculous, really, because microevolution within a species is constantly ongoing and mutants aren't a new species. Every once in a while some politician with his head up his ass will decide to try some new law to either restrict mutants or guarantee them a freedom and the whole pot will get stirred up. And when you're talking about people that can manipulate magnetic fields or walk through walls, that pretty much always gets messy."

"So why haven't I heard about it before now?"

"It's actually not something that really comes up all that often. The mutants mostly police their own when they can and hand criminals over to the authorities when they can't. The real problem is that mutants are human, just like all of the people on all of the sides of the Civil Rights Movement, so some of them have decided that extinction of non-mutants sounds pretty good to them. You got lucky and you made friends with a couple of them that fell on the other side of the fence."

Steve was quiet for a moment, absorbing the information. "Think they'll be there next week?"

"Maybe. Mutants who've been ID'd have been lynched in the past, so if someone that they don't trust finds out, a lot of them will cut and run. It sounds like they don't know what you saw, though, so there's a chance they'll keep to their routine. Either way, I think you just got handed an awesome opportunity. Don't tell Natasha or Clint and you might get an in into the mutant community." Tony smiled and turned back to his project. "It's always good to make new friends."


End file.
